In the harvesting of crops it is desired that the grain be separated from other elements or portions of the crop, such as from pod or cob fragments, straw, stalks, and the like. Agricultural combines typically have employed a rotary threshing or separating system for separating and segregating the grain from such other crop elements or portions. Typical of such rotary threshing or separating systems are constructions such as those described and depicted in Van Buskirk U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,460, issued to International Harvester Company, and Hall et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,994, issued to Deere and Company. In general, rotary threshing or separating systems are so designed that, as threshing occurs, the resulting crop material is typically caused to fall directly onto an underlying vibratory cleaning system or onto one or more conveyors for conveyance to a cleaning system for further processing.
The cleaning system typically includes a set of stacked sieves or shoes that are reciprocally moved, usually in the fore and aft directions, to separate or sift the grain from tailings and material other than grain (MOG). With many combines, as the grain is cleaned from the MOG, it falls through the sieves and drops onto or into one or more underlying clean grain pans that are disposed below the sieves, which pans typically include a plurality of elongated and longitudinally oriented clean grain collecting troughs positioned side-by-side across at least a portion of the width of the combine to receive the clean grain that falls through the set of sieves. Such collecting troughs are configured to receive the grain falling therein and to convey such grain therethrough towards an intersecting, cross, generally laterally extending, clean grain conveyance trough, sometimes referred to as the clean grain auger trough. The laterally extending clean grain conveyance trough receives the clean grain conveyed thereto from the clean grain collecting troughs and typically has associated therewith a conveyance mechanism, often in the form of an auger extending therethrough, for moving and delivering the clean grain in such clean grain conveyance trough to an elevator that carries the clean grain up to a clean grain tank.
During the vibration of the sieves, air is typically blown upwardly and rearwardly through the sieves to carry lighter elements of the MOG, or chaff, away. The heavier elements and tailings that are too large to fall through the sieves and too heavy to be blown away are caused to be moved by the vibrations, generally rearwardly along the top surfaces of the sieves, towards and over rear edges of the sieves to fall onto a tailings pan located below and extending somewhat beyond such rear edges. The tailings pan, similarly to the clean grain pan, typically includes a plurality of elongated and longitudinally oriented tailings collecting troughs positioned side-by-side across at least a portion of the width of the combine to receive the tailings that fall thereinto from the rear edges of the sieves. Such collecting troughs are configured to receive the tailings therein and to convey such tailings therethrough towards an intersecting, cross, generally laterally extending, tailings conveyance trough, sometimes referred to as the tailings auger trough. The sidewardly extending tailings conveyance trough receives the tailings conveyed thereto from the tailings collecting troughs and has a conveyance mechanism, often in the form of an auger extending therethrough, for moving and delivering the tailings to a tailings return conveyor operable for carrying the tailings upwardly, back to the cleaning or separating system of the combine, for reprocessing.
For convenience of reference, the clean grain conveyance trough will generally hereinafter be referred to as the clean grain auger trough regardless of the particular conveyance mechanism that may be employed therewith for moving the clean grain through such trough, and the tailings conveyance trough will generally hereinafter be referred to as the tailings auger trough regardless of the particular conveyance mechanism that may be employed therewith for moving the tailings through such trough. It should be recognized and understood, however, that such appellations are not intended to indicate or require that an auger must necessarily be employed therein or associated with such trough.
Additionally, also for convenience of reference, the various collecting troughs through which the grain and other crop materials may be conveyed, whether disposed preceding or subsequent to the cleaning system, are hereinafter sometimes or often referred to as collecting auger troughs regardless of the particular conveyance mechanisms that may be employed therewith for moving the clean grain through such troughs. It should be recognized and understood, however, that such appellation is not intended to indicate or require that an auger must necessarily be employed in or associated with such troughs and that other types or forms of conveying mechanism could be utilized or employed to move or convey the materials through such collecting auger troughs. Typically, though, the conveying mechanisms employed with the grain collecting and conveying systems, whether disposed before or after the cleaning systems, have often taken the form of relatively small diameter augers, disposed side-by-side across a portion of the width of the combine to form an auger bed, with the augers extending through respective collecting troughs, for conveying grain and crop materials that fall into the collecting troughs through such collecting troughs towards other locations. Consequently, while, in the further presentations herein, reference will often be made to augers as the preferred form of conveying mechanisms and to the auger beds formed by such augers, one should bear in mind that other types or forms of conveying mechanisms might also be advantageously employed.
Although the augers associated with the collecting auger troughs are generally effective in conveying the grain and crop materials through the collecting auger troughs and for emptying the grain and crop materials from such auger troughs, portions of such materials, as well as dirt and other residue, hereinafter generally referred to as remnants, can build up over time along the bottoms and edges of the collecting auger troughs and at locations beyond the reach of the augers that extend through such collecting auger troughs, due in part to the necessity for maintaining clearances between the auger flights and the trough surfaces. The remnants may be loose elements or particles that remain in the collecting auger troughs or may be caked or encrusted material build-up that accumulates on surfaces or in nooks or crannies along the collecting auger troughs. Such build-up of remnants may become particularly noticeable when moisture is introduced into such collecting auger troughs and/or remnants remain in the troughs as they are exposed to weather extremes. It is desirable to be able to remove as much of such remnants, both loose and encrusted, as possible, as a consequence of which users periodically may have to take appropriate actions to remove or clean the remnants from the collecting auger troughs.
Cleaning of the collecting troughs has been, at best, inconvenient, even for the removal of loose elements or particles, and the actions required to effect such cleaning have been cumbersome and time consuming, often requiring the use of special physical means to effect the clean out of the crop remnants from the collecting troughs of such conveying systems. Clean out of encrusted remnant build-up has been even more difficult, often requiring extensive disassembly of at least portions of the conveying systems to procure access to the collecting auger troughs. When there is a frequent desire or need to clean out the collecting troughs, such as might arise in seeding operations, the associated inconvenience is exacerbated, and lost time increases significantly.
The clean-out problem is further magnified when access to the collecting troughs is more restricted or cumbersome, such as is often the case with many combines wherein the auger bed and the associated collecting troughs are disposed below or beneath other significant structural members, such as the stacked sieves of the cleaning system, and are fixedly installed in place and, consequently, are not readily accessible or removable.
Clean out of collecting troughs has therefore remained a problem and a significant inconvenience, especially when extensive disassembly efforts, which must often be performed in cramped and awkward positions from beneath the combine, are required in order to gain access to the collecting troughs. Combine users have continued to consider the time and effort required to effect an acceptable clean out of such collecting troughs to be unacceptably high.